CAD systems in Fashion and
Textile Industry
Jimmy Lam
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
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Agenda
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CAD background.
CAD in Fashion & Textile industry
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CAD in Garment Production
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Woven design; knitted design; printed design and
fashion design
Specification sheet; grading and marker making
3-D body scanner
Virtual shopping & e-Commerce
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Computer Aided Design (CAD)
Background (I)
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Emerged in the 1970s
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Original functions – drafting and technical
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For aerospace industry, car industry
To replace manual drawing by computer-based tools.
E.g replace typer-writer by computer-based word
processing, MS Word
Apply to garment industry in late 70s in:
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pattern-making, grading, maker-making areas
WHY and How?
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CAD background (II)
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The widespread use of CAD has enable
design firms to be more efficient and
competitive
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Today’s CAD software is available as either
industrial or commercial
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Industrial software focuses on specific industry
need and often cost higher than commercial
ones
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Systems used in Fashion
and Textile design
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In woven textile designs
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What are the special features need for
woven textile design?
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Yarn dyes, plain weaves, jacquards or
dobbies could be designed using CAD
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The designers can be employed by a
manufacturer, design house, textile producer
or work freelance
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Woven design
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In knitted design
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What are the special
features needed for
knitted design?
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Software is used to create
and modify knitted fabrics
and garment parts
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Some systems generate
preview on screen of
resulting design effects, with
all stitch information
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In printed design
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Are any unique features for printed fabric
design? How?
Involves the development and manipulation
of a motif
Repeat
Generating colourways
Colour seperation
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Repeats
Half drop and half tone are
Unique CAD feature on textile printing
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Colour separation
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In fashion design
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Illustration system
Texture mapping/
draping
Virtual imaging
Embroidery system
What special features are needed
For Fashion design?
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Garment Production
What CAD features are required for garment production?
How it can be applied in cutting, sewing and
production operation?
Can it be used for production control, cost control?
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Garment manufacturing (I)
Specifications and Costing
This systems store style information including:
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Flat sketch
Size spec
Trim requirements
Size grade charts
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Specifications sheet
created by SpecView
pre-production system
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Garment Manufacturing (2)
Grading Systems
What are the essential
Requirements for grading
System?
 The system
automatically produce
pattern shapes in all
the pre-specified sizes
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Garment Manufacturing (3)
Marker Making Systems
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Can computer marker
system replace human
judgement?
Marker – arrangement of all
pattern parts for max. fabric
utilization
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The system indicates the
percentage of waste
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Automatic matching of
stripes and plaids is
common to most systems
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Websites of CAD Retailers
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www.fashionflash.com
www.monarchcad.com
www.lectra.com
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Questions
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What are the specific requirements on CAD
system for 1) woven design; 2) knitted design
and 3) printed design?
What are the specific requirements on CAD
system on garment manufacturing systems
for 1) product specification; 2) grading and 3)
marker making
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Advanced Topics on CAD
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3-D Body Scanner for e-Commerce
Virtual Shopping on Internet
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Electronic body scanning
Advanced CAD for e-Commerce
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Why we need 3-D body
scanning for eCommerce?
A new trend in
customizing clothing
After scanned,
customers could used
the measurement
information for internet
shopping e.g. ez-size
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Applications for 3-D body
scanner
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Retail E-Commerce
Apparel Industry
Clothing Design
Anthropological Studies
Automotive Design
Ergonomic Research
Computer Game Development
Medical Applications
Dress Form Manufacture
Personal Fitness Industry
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How’s 3-D body scanner work?
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Example of 3-D body scanner
From US TC2
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Example from Cyberware
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Virtual Shopping
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Released by the military to
show capabilities of
scanning and 3-D viewing
with garment application
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E.g. Brook Brothers’ digital
tailoring
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http://www.brooksbrother.co
m/
http://www.cyberware.com
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Questions
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What is 3-D body scanner?
What are the advantages of 3-D body
scanner?
Are there any limitations for 3-D body
scanner?
Why virtual shopping is still not popular in
Hong Kong?
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